Halo: A Beginning
by STHILBOURN THE NECROMANCER
Summary: The story of Privet Brie Garret and Elite Ra'Effraee. Set in Halo 1. First Halo Fic, R and R please.
1. The Forest

Chapter 1

The Forest

'_Go go go_!' Sarge blasted over the intercom. 'These men need our help!'

In the Pelican's cramped, noisy duel-controlled cockpit the pilot Captain Tom Hardy and co-pilot Privet Brie Garret exchanged uneasy glances.

_This had bad written all over it,_ thought Brie as she controlled the craft's hover.

Tom checked his instruments then flipped his com on and said, 'Sergeant Lee, we only have two hours of flight time left. You either have to be back here in one hour, or we'll have to back for you!' He waited for a reply. 'Sergeant, do you copy?' Then he frowned at his co-pilot and snapped, 'Turn on the rear viewer.'

'Yes sir.' Brie switched it on and amongst all the other dials and toggles a small screen set into the panel lit up. 'Sir, the engines are overheating.'

'Yes, Privet, I can see that.' He said shortly. 'Where's Lee's Platoon? They just got off. There's no Covenant in this sector.'

Brie tore her eyes away from her instruments long enough to look at the live feed from the camera.

'Maybe the jungle is causing some kind of interference?' She said quickly then adjusted the Pelican's yaw by five degrees. 'We did have trouble maintaining radio contact coming in. And we could barely make out that distress signal from the Lieutenant Viceroy's squad.'

'Bullshit, it's just trees. Go and make a visual inspection.'

'Aye, Sir.' Garret had to hide her disrespect for her superior. Being an officer meant that he was allowed to a lazy asshole at times. 'What am I to look for?'

'Them, or if it's anything out of the usual we will launch a beacon.' He rejoined briskly. 'I'm ready to take over now.'

He took his yoke and Brie handed over control and unbuckled her seatbelt, stood up and exited though the airlock and into the main hold. The seats lining the hull were vacant, the harnesses chinked together gently. The engines roared and primary hatch was wide open but there was nothing other than the dust to see.

_This is crap_, she thought as she approached the steel airlock and gazed out into the warm, hazy jungle dusk.

'Sir, I can't see a thing.' She called over her com while the smell of the Pelican's exhaust near choked her and clung to her clothes.

'Alright get up here, I'll lock the door and _what the fuck..!_'

The ship violently swung sideways and suddenly a bulkhead was rushing at her. The privet threw her hands up and was slammed against the wall. Rebounding, Brie lost her footing and was thrown _out_ on to the forest floor. The engines were howled strangely then the huge ship ploughed forward through trees.

Brie was dazed for all of five seconds, then, '_**Wait!**_' She screamed but was drowned out by the dissipating roar. _I'm out of the ship!__I'__m out of the ship! _Was repeating over and over in her head. She stumbled up and fought her way through the dense undergrowth. The Privet heard the explosion and was blown off her feet by and shockwave.

_No!_

It was the Pelican! The damp forest caught fire as the JP8 fuel burned and debris crashed down like heavy rain. Something smashed down beside her. It was a torso.

_Oh, god, was it Tom?_ Brie couldn't stop looking into its vacant eyes.

_No, it was Sergeant Lee._

Acrid smoke was chocking the air as gunfire rattled off nearby. Stunned Garret threw herself under a mossy log in retaliation and fumbled for her handgun only to find the holster was empty. _Shit!_

_Had the Captain crashed into Lee's men__, or_ _Viceroy's_ She thought wildly. Now bright green and white plasma bolts flew through the undergrowth and bullets tore up thick, waxy leaves.

_There __a__re Covenant and the Marines somewhere in here._

Under her log Brie had the equivalent of an epiphany. She switched on her com.

'This is Privet Brie Garret. Please report your position.' Brie waited but was met with static.

A grenade exploded nearby and something jumped upon her hideaway. She poked her frightened head out and saw her saviour. A green and brown spattered combat boot moved past her FOV.

The co-pilot rolled out and stood up. 'Hey! Don't shoot!' She said. The Marine turned and Brie's next words died in her throat. It was not a man, but a creature. It raised its shotgun and fired – but Brie was already in a dive, the momentum sent her down a gully, the thing crashing down after her. Around her she could hear more coming.

_What the fuck was that?!_ Brie bounded up and ran though the thick ferns and smack into an Elite. She stared at it in horror. Its tall, putrid, slimly body was missing both arms! It just stood there, looking at her!

Then something smashed into her, sent her reeling through the air. Brie hit the ground and slid onto then through a lichen covered cement grate.

Her last thoughts were primal. _Run! Hide!_

Disorientated she crawled in the dark hole for a long time. Suddenly she was sliding uncontrollably down as the angle declined sharply. Brie was cold and scared and unable to do a thing about it.


	2. Steel Fortress

Chapter 2

Steel Fortress

Hundreds of feet beneath the Forerunner installation a lone Minor Elite Ra' Effraee grabbed the diseased Sangheili as it leapt at him. He simultaneously ripped the plasma rifle out of the stinking abomination's rotted hand and kept its momentum going. It banged to the metal ground where it was shot to pieces. Then he was tackled to the floor by two former humans. Bright plasma blinded him as he opened fire on the one on top of him while his flailing, dinner-plate sized hoof inadvertently crushed the skull of the other.

Effraee knocked the corpses away from him and kicked up; his motion tracker was going wild. The Elite's long muscled neck turned left and right.

_What was going on!_ _There was nothing there_.

A burst of weapons fire caught him in the thigh. His shield flared and he dove aside, rolled up and zigzagged backwards.

_There it was!_ A Human with its Human gun just standing in the open with the firearm pointed at him.

_These things were stupid but a true warrior never underestimated his opponent!_

Effraee kept moving and checked his rifle. Six shots left.

_A true warrior also revelled in __the heat of __battle, but there was no honour in fighting an endless foe who didn't even know when they were dead._

Far across the hall, on the second level, a door opened.

_Prophets give me strength!_ Thought the Elite as four more of them poured out, shoving each other in the door in their haste.

The first one out was another Sangheili, its skin green slick and mottled. It bounded clean off the catwalk and landed on the deck in a heap. As it staggered up Effraee could see that it had cleanly snapped its long shin bone, but it was not deterred and it's comrades unconcerned. The rest jumped down and they all ran at the Elite, firing their guns.

Effraee fired his rifle's last shots at the weakest of the four then threw his weapon down and met them all head-on with a battle cry in his throat.

His shield flashed, claws rent decaying flesh, bones were crushed, and rotting bodies clashed and were torn apart. When it was over the minor Elite was the only one standing amid the ruin and gore, left bleeding and bruised.

He didn't feel the usual lust for battle, instead he disconsolately kicked a tentacle clad forelimb covering a glowing green plasma gun and picked it up and checked the meter; _good_ – _it was full_. He added it to his growing arsenal, a charged plasma gun and rifle and three smouldering blue plasma grenades; it was a fine start. It boosted Effraee's normally bloated confidence.

_He would like to see some of those blips on his __motion sensor come near him now, _he glowered.

He clopped away from the scene, crunching on an inferior human weapon.

_Th__ose stinking apes! _But his mood lifted at the idea of the familiar earthling foe. _At least t__hey were__ a normal enemy, not like those .__..things._

He idly pushed his four thick, finger-like lips together.

_Which way?_ This place was huge, made of steel and everything looked identical. His mission counter said he'd been in the installation for 03:47:05.

_00:00:00 had been the drop off. 00:11:32 had been first contact._

_At 00:16:48 he, a superior from another unit and a handful of Grunts had been separated from the main task force._

The Elite backed up and took a running jump up onto the second platform. He checked himself and ducked through the door.

_They had barricaded themselves in a room barely big enough to fit them all which turned out to be an elevator. __It had gone down and t__hey had been delivered to the belly of the beast. Effraee remembered the disorder, the disarray, fighting and running till only he was left__ lost and alone._

This corridor looked like the last corridor – sterile, cramped and cold. His HUD reported a temperature of 22 degrees. It would have been uncomfortable if his battered blue armour didn't keep him at his core temperature.

The Elite periodically tried to radio in to no avail. Only static come over the channel while the sound of his huge, cloven hooves echoed in the still, stale air.

_It was all this accursed metal, _he thought. It inhibited long range signals, but he knew if someone came in thirty meters he would be able to get them.

Suddenly shadows where thrown against the wall like monsters and soft, organic bleating noises sounded then _small, bloated pallid__ things invaded the__ opposite__end of the long __corridor_.

The Elite raised his rifle and filled the air with boiling plasma. By the time his gun had over-heated the walls and ceiling dripped with green while tiny, twitching, chitins legs and shreds of skin littered the floor.

_It was the little __infecting__-type ones_. _They were the ones that could change you into the zombie things._ He swallowed that hereditary, ingrained fear of disease and tried not to slip over in the mess when he walked.

He got to the end of the passageway and tried to let his motion tracker steady...but it was useless, the red dots still swarmed. Just like the creatures themselves, without intelligence or structure. They pointlessly roamed through the halls.

The next area was huge, and identical to the last room except all the doors were vivid green.

_Which one__ should I take? _He wondered.


	3. A Meeting of Sorts

Chapter 3

A Meeting of Sorts

Co-pilot Brie Garret was calm, well, more dazed than calm. She had ended up in an open air-vent some meters off the ground. She'd stayed deathly quiet till the fighting screams of the trapped Covenant aliens had stopped. When the silence finally bloomed she took her first look into the enormous, poorly-lit room.

In the low, milky mist _things_ moved around the dozens of dead bodies.

But the orange, light blue, purple and green blood painted familiar patterned walls and floor. Brie had seen enough of the structure outside they were bringing in more reinforcements to know that she was in it.

It was a bleak thought.

But there were guns everywhere, the sight jumpstarted her will to fight. Brie saw bright, brass bullet casings catching the light while here and there the iridescent emerald and sapphire of Covenant weapons glowed.

Something thrashed about and a partially digested looking Elite lurched up, a flaccid white dead thing with thin legs fell off the back of its long neck and onto the ground. The enormous, transformed biped gripped its Plasma Rifle and wandered away.

_Holy shit!_She thought and pulled her head back over the edge

Over the next fifteen minutes half of the dead Covenant – correction, dead Elites, reanimated. They milled around with the dead Marines that came through the wide entrance.

_This can't be happening! _Garret thought. _I don't understand!_

And as if she was getting a reality check one of the men staggered over – close enough for her to read the name tag sown above his breast pocket. It was Captain Tom Hardy.

* * *

Brie stayed there till her hyper sensitive hearing detected nothing. Had she not know better she could have been there for days but her Mission Timer said it was only forty minutes later.

Unable to get back out the way she came in Garret took her other option. She laid on the lip of the cold cement vent for an extra ten before deciding it was safe to get down.

The thick mist swirled around her legs as she quietly dropped to the ground and walked amongst the carnage. But she had her eyes on her prize – a MA5B Assault Rifle. She was an airman first but like everyone else she'd been through basic training. The Privet picked it up and felt raw power radiate from its sleek lines.

_Though i__n her time on Halo she'd never actually fired at the enemy..._

She took a moment to check the weapon's function, and found it in perfect working order. It even had half a clip in it _and __holy shit, __they were coming back! _For one second Brie panicked, considered trying to get back up into the vent, thought the better of it, and dropped to the blood slick floor next to the prone form of one of the bird-like Jackals and played dead.

She held her breath and closed her eyes. She could hear the creature shuffled around for _ages_ and then just as soon as it appeared, it left. She peered over the dead Jackal, its electric orange eyes were wide open, and realized that the thing had gone back _in_ the only way _out_.

_What? __No, __I'm__ trapped!_

Brie gently got up and moved to see it better. It was true, but...in the middle of the room were four huge pillars arranged on the points of a square. And in the centre of that a clear glass floor with a holographic control panel set onto a pedestal.

_It was an elevator._

_Do I say here and try to fight an unknown force – one that had killed both humans and aliens__ and transformed __them __– or take the lift and fight an unknown force on one of the lower levels?_

While she debated a handgun was found on a Second Lieutenant named M. Bates and more clips for the machinegun and a MD6 pistol was picked up and pocketed while a handful of MRE's joined them.

_She'__d take the lift. If there were twenty plus of those things out there then she'd take her chances elsewhere._

The huge, blue dorsal spikes of a Hunter were limp against the giants' armoured back. She had never seen one up close, only on the computer or in mission logs. But Brie didn't have time to be curious; she quickly stepped around it, tracking its tacky orange blood to the edge of the clear floor.

_It went down, down, down into the darkness_.

The Privet gingerly stepped onto the clear platform – it looked thin enough to break – and up to the glowing pedestal and hit the control. With a lurch she swiftly descended into the black.

The two minute ride was as eerie as hell. It eventually halted at what seemed to be its first stop, for the shaft kept on going down, so Brie hopped off and stood in front of a metal door strong enough to be an airlock. It was a little puzzling.

_What else was down here? _She thought and hugged the rifle's stock to her shoulder. It didn't answer her question but offered command in its stopping power. She approached the 'lock and it slid open quietly, revealing a brightly lit, stainless steel corridor. With all the dark, rank horror on the next level up the clean, sharp lines seemed out of place here.

_Was __this level__ whole and safe?_She wondered and stepped forward. _Perhaps the danger was from outside, in the jungle?_

After all she did not know better. Nearly two hours ago they were dropping off Marines at that Installation so that they could stop the Covenant. This time a _noise_ answered her. Not one, many. Like bleating...Garret raised the assault rifle cautiously. And then, like a lost balloon at caravel time, a pale thing bumbled into the passageway. Instead of floating away, its sharp little legs and tentacles bobbed and jumped its bloated body towards her.

_It was unmistakable; it was one of those things that turned those aliens upstairs._

Brie squeezed the trigger and the thing disappeared in a puff of green as four and the seventeen shots fired hit it.

_Yes! _She thought. _I __actually hit it. _

Those ones are easy...and the corridor filled with them, rushing towards her in want.

_Oh shit!_

Brie fired again, hosing down the walls with a lead rain till the chamber smoked and cracked empty. But things kept dying as she fumbled with the eject button! Plasma bolts filled the tight space, evaporating their distended forms as a dead, one-armed Elite suddenly appeared then thundered toward her, wildly firing its Plasma rifle as it came.

_The Privet stared as two__ hundred kilos of decaying flesh pounded closer, saw __the way its rifle stop shooting, __shutdown and enter its cooling cycle._

She finally got the empty out and snapped a new clip in then raised her gun and let the bullets chew through it rotten body till it crashed to the floor, sliding the last few feet up to her, dead.

_These things, they were like a flood!_


	4. A Discovery

Chapter 4

A Discovery

Ra' Effraee ditched the flat Plasma Gun and picked up another one. He rubbed away the Grunt's dried blue blood to make sure the counter read full then regarded the picture before him once more. It amazed him. He was standing in the middle of a wide ring of dead creatures and at the epicentre were two lifeless Grunt Majors. Despite being riddled with bullet holes and plasma burns they hadn't broken their back-to-back formation, nor had their punctured methane tanks exploded.

The Minor Elite felt pride instead of the normal irritation or indifference. Though he didn't recognize them – their tags stopped transmitting because their computers in their environmental suits were dead – he regretted their deaths but knew it meant if they had gotten down here, there might be more.

_Or __perhaps they already were__ but running amok __with those other filthy animals?_

He would not find them or anyone by standing around. He wished the Grunts good hunting in the afterlife and followed some more bloody footprints to a new door.

* * *

Effraee's blood was on fire in the darkness. Not only had he lain waste entire roomfuls of enemy, he'd seen the Demon!

_That green-armoured Human devil spawn was down here too!_

But as soon as he'd seen him the Demon had gone. Still, seeing the Humans greatest warrior in person gave him a goal to aspire too. It even made failing to prevent the Humans penetrating the Forerunner Structure slightly bearable...and his privet skulking ground was lit up by a volley of white plasma bolts. It was almost as effective as a spotlight.

He dove behind a squat concrete pillar and took cover, bullets pinged off the floor and exploded into the front of the column.

_Human weapons no longer meant humans, which was anomalous but adaptable._

It now meant ex-Elites or ex-Marines. A single red blip appeared on his 'tracker, then another and another, five in all.

Rage welled as he thought of his comrades. _He __wou__ld destroy them all._

He charged the plasma gun till the single charge flared green at the tip and it vibrated. Then the Elite dove into the fight. One of the apes went down in a flash of emerald. Effraee switched to the rifle and blew the others away.

The light faded back to darkness and his shield recharged.

These things were mindless. But the minor Elite was quickly learning about his foe; both human and Elite, displayed little combat ability, unless you counted running at you while shooting. They only used the gun that they died with; they didn't add or pick up superior weapons. Nor would they reload them if they ran out...

_Those were the ones that would run and leap at you and try to bludgeon your skull in._

He again took his pick from the best-charged Convenant weaponry littering the metal floor. Satisfied he continued on through this vast steel edifice with battle-heightened senses. He was in awe but baffled by the overall function of this installation. He was also still quite lost and had felt he had progressed little more than killing a lot of already dead things.

There were also no useable computers down here. Effraee could hear their familiar hum of holographic projectors but they only had set functions like 'open a door' or 'extend a bridge'.

He ghosted around the perimeter till he found another door. It was then his radio burst to life, the sound almost made Effraee's heart stop.

_'...turn back. I repeat that the Flood have overwhelmed our forces. All units are to retreat. May the prophets forgive us and save our souls. This is Second Commander __Zealot __Kea' __Gerent__ee__, the Flood has escaped. I am ordering all to turn back...'_

The Elite almost broke his com toggle in his hast to respond.

'Second Commander Gerentee, it is I, Ra' Effraee. I am lost. Report your position and I will make my way to you.'

_The other Elite had to be in a thirty meter perimeter_, he thought with bated breath.

Then, '_Flood has escaped. I am ordering all to turn back..._' And the message began repeating, again and again.

The Sangheili felt the familiar burn of disappointment. He then realized two possibilities. The Elite with the laminable voice could have recorded his message and been killed or done what he had said he was going to – retreat.

_Then__ an entire elite strike force__ may still be in the area for the Zealots had entered first and the second wave –__ which Effraee__ was a part of – had been deployed soon after to keep the Human's dirty hands away._

So what, he may be ten or fifteen minutes behind? Well longer because he'd been lost...

Buzzed he played with the Plasma Gun then clipped it to his belt and drew the rifle.

_He would find them and they would fight this thing __together._

* * *

The young Elite knew he had found them. He had not seen them yet but he knew that they were dead. He was hiding behind a dusty concrete bank that ran right 'round the vast boundary, his quads and calves were cramping from kneeling in this position for so long. This place felt..._so_ old, like an ancient burial tomb that had been opened in the present day. The Elite could almost feel the two time lines colliding together.

_This place had been first, the rest had been built around it._

The barren light and dead air housed an enormous vault built into the opposite wall. The vault itself was made out of pure titanium and _gleamed_. Effraee gazed at it in wonder. It looked twenty meters tall and four meters thick, it had to weigh a hundred ton...

_And it was open_. He could just see a small display panel on the wall beside it flashing red. Effraee had a feeling it had been made to keep those _things_ in, but the creators had not considered anyone letting them out.

_I have__ been here for ages_, the Elite thought and slowly stood as though on oiled bearing and flexed his legs and arched his neck. _Nothing had been through here for almost thirty minutes, and why should there be? All the fresh meat was outside._

With great trepidation Effraee let his hiding place and walked like the last sheep to the slaughterhouse, to the great vault. With plasma grenades and rifle at the ready he ducked through, put his back to the cold wall and swept the area.

Nothing moving, nothing on the tracker. The Elite relaxed slowly let himself take notice of the interior.

In this bright and sterile steel room there had been a terrible battle, the bodies of the Covenant Elite where strewn about the deck, burn marks pocked the walls and ceiling and discarded weapons littered the floor.

In the dead silence Ra' Effraee could almost hear their throatless battle cries. He walked among them, their gold regalia burnish in the white light and came face to face with an enormous smashed tank that dominated the room; the holographic keyboard beside it glowed red.

After a few moments of just standing there he began to recite the words of passing to them all. When he finished he removed the helmet of one who had had his armoured chest caved in. Fiddling with it he managed to get the tiny data chip out.

_If he wanted to find out what happened this was the only way._

Replacing the helmet beside the corpse he took his own off, took his chip out and put the new one in. Because what was on the chip would show up transparent on his HUD he found a quiet corner to hide in and played it.

The file contained a Mission Briefing and a Vid. He asked for the Vid first.

On the superimposed screen was the name Ked' Hallefee and a Mission Timer.

_00:00:00._

A small troop carrier lifted off, causing trees to shake and foliage to fly through the air. It looked like their drop off so Effraee fast forwarded it.

00:07:34.

The screen bobbed around as they ran through the corridors, Hallefee was in the middle of the group so every time he looked at someone their tag would show green...

_Where they under attack?_ He wondered, and then, as if answering his question a throaty voice called out; 'Hurry my brothers! Let our swift actions show the noble prophets their Zealot's devotion!'

Again he fast forwarded it. He stopped the flowing pictures when they come to something recognizable: the vault room.

00:18.09

There was lots of jostling as all of them crowed around the huge round door. As the camera panned about Effraee caught sight of a bright purple Huragok with pale striping over its back, working on the door control panel. The 'lock cracked open and the engineer tried to float away to examine whatever came in tentacle-reach when it was unceremoniously plucked out of the air and dragged inside.

'What is that?' One said and Hallefee looked at great tube filled with something slimy green in the middle of the room.

_Yes, what is that?_ Effraee thought as well when he saw the outlines of _something_ before the camera moved.

'For the Prophet's sake, bring that thing over here!' Another voice bellowed.

'Yes Excellency!' The camera panned again to see the Zealot tagged Ref' Tufnellee bring the Huragok over to the Elites standing by the control panel.

As soon as the violet tentacles touched the holograms a noise sounded. Hallefee turned, as did many others, to a golden tube pulsating high in the air.

'Hold your fire!' Was roared, though on Hallefee's 'tracker the newcomer showed up as an unfriendly.

The tube disappeared in a flash and a round, silver drone with a bright 'eye' took its place.

'Hello!' It said enthusiastically and zoomed closer. 'My name is Guilty Spark 343 and I am the Monitor of Installation 04.' Though its voice was tinny through the tiny speaker it was being translated from Human to Covenant Standard.

_Odd..._

'I must ask you to leave.' It continued in a friendly tone. 'I will escort you back to the South Entrance.'

Off screen a plasma rifle sounded and the Monitor's shields blazed.

To sycophantical laughter came Guilty Spark's quivering indignation. 'Then I must insist!'

Effraee watched Hallefee watch _light__s_ show in air vents near the ceiling, and then large flying machines came out. There were nine in total.

'Please leave. Only the Reclaimers may enter this place!'

Over the Zealots' privet channel came, 'We must fulfil the Prophets wishes! Defend the Huragok at all costs! Destroy the interlopers!'

Everyone's affirmation light blinked and they filled the air with plasma. In retaliation the drones dodged about and fired back with thick yellow laser beams. Over the shouted orders, weapons fire and the Monitor's pleas to stop and leave was a resounding _bang_ then glass smashing.

Hallefee's camera turned to see the Elites' running and the Huragok floating away from the tube where an enormous, slimy green blob with tree-trunk tentacles smash its way out of its tank. One of them flew at Hallefee.

Effraee heard him cry out as he was lifted up. His camera thrashed about and there was a sickening sound of bones snapping and armour creaking as the Zealot was crushed to death. Dropped to the floor the screen showed the huge thing rampage through the Zealots and drones, then the image stopped as the suit's power died.

Chilled Effraee rewound the last five seconds then froze it.

Hallefee was dead on his side – mayhem all around; in front of him was the creature, and on its 'back' where dozens of clear, tear-dropped shaped sacs. Ra' Effraee could make out the little baby carrier forms inside.

He switched it off and called up the 'Briefing. Effraee read it once then read it again and was still unenlightened. Clearly they were to bring the engineer down to this room, where it would make Halo activate. He took his helmet off, put his own chip back in and pocked the other in his belt.

_That Vid raised more questions than it answered__ and the Mission Briefing held nothing!_

Irritated he trawled through all the weapons till he found a fully charged Plasma Rifle. Any reply he came up with was overshadowed by the Monitor, the drones and the blob thing. The Elite also found it was odd that 'Briefing contained no contingency plan, not even an emergency dust off point.

He gave a nearby Plasma Sword an envious stare. He was tempted to take it but his rank forbade him to use one. He needed to shelve these unanswerable questions. He'd learnt all he could from the Vid. Before he left he did a body count. There were fourteen purple-bloodied bodies were here.

Six of them were missing, plus the Huragok.

With that devil spawner on the loose he wondered if he'd find anyone...


	5. Other Findings

Chapter 5

Other Findings

Brie Garret had seen something. A bright light had flown high over her head and into an air duct. She had sworn she heard giggling too, but...the _flood_.

_Bring it on_, she thought with bitter strength, the UFO forgotten. _I've got a shotgun_ _and I know how to use it._

Despite her lack of real combat training she acquitted herself well. She took cover as a pair of humans' and an Elite firing the dreaded Needler, rushed her. Bright purple spines zipped overhead, buried themselves high into the wall and exploded with the sound of smashing glass.

Garret could hear their slavering breaths and wet footsteps as they come nearer and...The first two to die were the very mouldy ex-Marines; they flew at her, the closest firing his pistol, both to receive near identical buckshot death. Brie didn't even pause to revel in victory, the third had backed off and more could have been alerted by the noise.

She could've been more right, rounding the corner back the way she'd come were four more, plus two carries.

_Shit!_

One of the Elite new-comers broke away, took and enormous leap, near landed beside her only to be blown apart as she backpedalled. Brie now hurriedly pulled a frag grenade from her pocket and pegged it at the carriers then switched to the machine gun.

When the cloud of smoke and shards cleared there was a second 'bang' as one of lumpy creatures exploded and took out another of the big ones. Smashing glass sounded from behind and the dead Elite from the first fight was suddenly right beside her. Brie froze and nearly saw her future in his insipid eyes as he took a swing at her and tried to shoot the Needler at the same time. The sound and motion snapped her out of it. Garret hit the ground, rolled and unloaded a clip into its barrel chest and was on her feet again, ejecting the clip, putting a full one in.

Silence...

_Where had the rest gone?_ She thought worriedly and dodged over to check out the other corridor.

There they were, back down the other end, running about like they were fighting. Then out of the dimness a dazzling yellow laser lit up creatures, where it touched it shore off their rotted limbs. Now more lasers joined in erasing the things, it made Brie duck for cover then peer out cautiously.

_There, they were drones__, four of them where hovering high in the air_

It was like the Flood had completely forgotten about her. Instead was attacking drones as best they could. Brie watched one of ex-Elites leapt up high and managed to snag one of the soaring mechanicals. It began to punch the hell out of it till the machine sparked and exploded and then both smashed to the ground.

The craft was destroyed but the dead Elite leapt up again only to be taken down by the remaining machines.

The Flood didn't scream in pain as they were sliced to pieces, instead they fought back till they were dismembered. With the last carrier a smudge on the floor the remaining drones left, gliding off into a wide vent elevated high off the floor.

With an anxious twinge Brie realized that those vents were everywhere, giving the laser bearing machines just as much access around the facility as the Flood did.

_God damn it, what else__ was down here? _She wondered and quickly used the rifle's scope to survey the damage down the hall then switched to reload the shotgun while the images of severed twitching limbs hung in her mind.

_Click, __all those bodies. C__lick,__ bloated wet gore. C__lick,__ arms and legs and heads all sliced and diced – strewn about the deck.__Click__ a __cut off__ hand with a wedding ring on its finger. Click_

Brie had to shake it. Finished she turned the corner and barely had time to cock the rifle as a drone – suddenly huge and more weapon-like up close – hummed up off the floor and settled at Brie's head height, its large luminescent white-blue lens dilating like an eye.

_Holy shit! _Brie thought, and felt most of her vital functions stop cold.

Hidden rotors whirred and it bobbed slightly but in all her life Brie had never been scrutinized so.

It was like it was regarding her...

_I am not bad.__ I'm not like them!_

And then, its metal, shielded body rose up and flew away.

Brie could only watch the blue glow reflecting off the wall disappear through a vent.

She gripped the rifle and realized that she could move again.

_What __just happened?_

* * *

That was over half an hour ago and Brie was well over the surprise, but not over the event.

Those machines had and were continuing to kill the Flood. She had been spotted twice by them now to no ill effect. Brie was in a full mind that the drones were solely seeking out the Flood to destroy them. They were alien too, not Covenant, sure as hell not UNCS.

_They came from here_, Garret decided, _because they matched in with the __installation's __overall design_. _They were __like __the guard__ian__s, they were __the S__entinels._

Anyway, beside to having an ersatz accomplice against this new enemy, she'd also finally felt like she'd made some progress.

_Goodbye small places and bright corridors and hello dim, multi-level hanger-like rooms._

It was like she'd found the main thoroughfare. All the dead bodies she'd found seemed to attest to that. She looked behind her to the single Elite she'd taken plasma grenades off of. Like it most had died alone, and some like the Flood, where killed by laser or Plasma based weapons. Although she had found a large group of still grunts awhile back, their azure blood had painted the steel walls...

_But l__ike them she would die, too.__ It was just a matter of when. Garret was not fatalistic by nature but nor was she going to kid herself about her chances... __There was strength in that dire thought, when her time came, she'd cap herself. Better that than turning in to one of them._

Brie hugged the wall and tried to keep an ear _out_ and an eye _on_ the second level, the doors on this floor as well as the general area. So far there was now nothing but dead Convent. And Brie didn't have to be a strategist to see that they panicked and run. She walked past a big purple container which had been knocked over in someone's haste, disgorging dozens of Covie Plasma Guns.

_So that's what they were for_, she realized. _They __sure as well weren't eskies..._

She stepped around some shield generators. They had been deployed but not activated.

_Poor bastards, t__hey had been run to ground then slaughtered. _Brie thought and actually felt sympathetic for the Covenant despite having lost a lot good mates.

Gunfire sounded up ahead. It snapped Brie out of her thoughts. Now a voice was yelling, they were human – male and frantic.

_They were close, coming from the second floor!_ She hurriedly looked around for some way up.


	6. Bad Move

Chapter 6

Bad Move

Ra' Effraee knew the value of retreat. In fact, he was keenly feeling it now. Ever since leaving the vault he'd been constantly on the offensive. So much so it had left him almost weapon-less. Now he went from dominating any impromptu battlefield to avoiding combat unless necessary.

The minor Elite hugged the wall while an armless ape in a disgusting condition shuffled by his hiding place. He quietly put his head out and watched it go down the ramp.

Down here the unholy creatures were all Humans, all in an advanced state of decay, and worst of all, all virtually unarmed.

Now he stood up and silently followed it, his motion tracker was clear bar it, till he was able to dodge into another hallway. The young Elite could feel his general situation and the lack of firepower becoming detrimental on the mind. He was beginning to wonder whether he would wander these halls for eternity, until death, their infirmity or starvation took him...

Effraee grimaced; he would get a smack in the jaw from his Field Master for believing such things. That was not the way to think. All he had to do was keep his head and not panic.

_After all, pulsing through his veins was the blood of a fine linage of proud warriors. Flowing through his mind was all their teachings. __He had__ nothing to fear, the enemy did. _His bolstered confidence was shown in his gait. _Even if they __did no__t know it_

With keen – and sensible wits, he still roamed through what he felt was the 'old' part of the structure. Everything around here seemed unrefined and primitive, the computers – the holograms particularly, where the best indicators, their graphics where large and chunky. Oh yes, there was the dust too. It covered everything.

The Elite looked behind himself to the steel floor were his own hoof prints, and _their_ footprints, showed up clearly, but he highly doubted that they were not smart enough to figure out what it meant and follow him.

This passageway opened up to an enormous room with a light-well.

That's what Effraee called these giant fissures that erupted with bright radiance. The first one he'd seen he had natural gone closer out of curiosity...only to suffer a sudden fear of heights.

_He'__d stood on a__ precipice, and it went down to the infinite._

He switched off his Rifle to avoid detection and quietly followed the wall through the dim vastness poorly lit by the said light-well. Holding the cooling weapon Effraee knew that Halo was artificial world, and that they had been driven underground during the first attack...

He was _in_ the ring world, it was the only explanation. Indeed, the far off rumbling would be machinery.

_Perhaps_, he thought as he cut through the muted light, _that he had become lost in the maintenance corridors. But __again __that didn't explain __what that thing was doing in the tube, or the Monitor or the flying drones..._

_And what had that Guilty Spark said? __"__Please leave. Only the Reclaimers may enter this place!__"_

_What did that mean? Who were the Reclaimers?_

The Elite smiled a little to himself. He, like all his kind, had been spoiled by technology. Mission briefings, Battle-Net, advanced weapons, shield capabilities, spy scanners and radars, superior ships...

_What did you have when you took it all away? _

What the ancient Sangheiligods gave him, that's what! He unconsciously flexed and his inner warrior glowed with pride. It was ignoring what the rest of him was trying to say.

_T__here is blood on the floor._

And there was. The previous question forgotten, he stopped and frowned at the droplets of light purple on the floor in front of him.With his motion tracker clear Effraee knelt down to examineit.

_The blood was __Sangheili, and by the size and shape of the spatters he could tell that __this__ Elite had been shot with human bullets but was not fatality wounded__, he had run through here_.

Effraee reached down and brushed his clawed fingertips over drops.

_They were still tacky...but the temperature here was cold enough to preserve it for at least a couple of hours..._

_So..._He stood the examined his surroundings more thoughtfully.

_Where could he be__? And w__ould it be one of the Zealots or someone else?_The Elite wondered. Though he was impatient to begin this search he was now more concerned with being attacked in the same manner.

The Elite reconnoitred the area, which turned up empty, and then returned to the blood. He was quick to find the initial point of attack – which was only meters away and intersected with his own original path – then the probable place the attacker had _been_, which was also were the trail was leading.

Standing there he had a clear line of sight to a wide entryway some forty feet away which was flanked by two chunky, gently upward- sloping platforms.

_That's where the shooter had stood..._

He wouldn't be there now. The things were too stupid to retreat, unless they had been Marines. What if was the Demon?!

_Getting a chance to __defeat__ the earthlings Champion was a __most pleasing __thought..._

The Elite followed the trail till it came to the entryway – then his happy thought evaporated. To the right was another brightly lit hallway, to the left, a short cul-de-sac. The blood went right then left then up the wall.

With his lower jaws open in horror as he made out the grisly scene in the low light.

Purple and green were painted in great splashes over the bulkheads; several body parts of the creatures encircled the inert body of the golden Zealot. His right arm which torn off at the shoulder, lay near the wall. It was still clutching the Plasma Sword.

_He had been chased into this corner then __slaughtered, _Effraee thought in disgust. _He had then either __bled or was bludgeoned to death._

Still disgusted he knew he'd have to take the dead warrior's Plasma sword. Right now he was on his own in a place where survival trumped rank.

_Anyway, _he thought bitterly, his hopes of finding a survivor dashed. _The Zealot no longer needed it_

The deactivated handle was clenched in cold fingers but the meter read a half charge. The Elite put his back to the wall and held the severed limb in both his hands and as gently as he could, pried the digits apart. It was hard to do, rigor mortis had set in.

* * *

The Sword had run out in no time.

_The cursed thing was like bad luck!__Perhaps__ that was the real reason only the senior__ Elites were allowed to use them;__ it was like a magnet for enemies!_

And they were everywhere. Ra' Effraee was crouching behind a square pillar, unable to retreat, unable to advance. The Elite wished for the Prophets to take them away.

He had been chased here by a dozen dead Elites. Now some had left and more had joined. The creatures had lost him so they were just milling around, slowly getting closer while blocking all three potential exits with their idle activity.

_This was not a warriors' end.__He had envisioned his death to be a glorious affair, surrounded by his brothers with blazing guns, not__ lost and weapon-__ less._

There was one coming straight towards the hidden Elite. It caused an arching bolt of electricity to fire up Ra' Effraee's spine. _He__ would __return to his brothers-in-arms, return to his clan, return to the Covenant and everything would be as it was._

The Elite steeled himself for the pain to come, and then leapt out.

They all saw him but he was able to snap the neck of the first one then they all went down in a writhing pile. In an instant Effraee _knew_ what it was all about – not particle weapons and strategy but strength, pure and simple.

Legs that could carry his two-hundred kilo bulk over fifty kph lashed out and snapped bones, arms strong enough to bench a hundred and fifty grabbed anything that moved and tore and ripped and slashed while the whole time his muscular body bucked and thrashed.

By the time his vision turned red the world around him ceased to move. In an adrenalin high the Elite bounded up only to be body slammed back onto the floor and overwhelmed.

Someone was yelling out.

Effraee realized it was his own voice.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a bloated green thing waddle towards him and fall down and begin to expand.

_No..._

* * *

The Elite lay there for a long time. He had been unconscious for a while but now he was now in a daze. He couldn't move yet...but right beside him was the things that had attacked him. They were quite dead.

_Apparently_, his confused mind decided, _that they__ had borne the brunt of the blast when that lumpy creature exploded_.

He twitched his head to the side and tried to focus. The more he stared at the ruin the more he realised that something was wrong, fundamentally wrong.

His HUD was off...his suit's onboard computer was off...no power...no shields...

Though it was cold life was returning to his limbs. He managed to roll onto his side when he heard the sound of the little infectious carriers rouse and come towards him.


	7. Of Things to Come

Chapter 7

Of Things to Come

The yells sounded again. Brie gave the empty purple container one last mighty shove and heaved it upright. She slung her MA5B and shotgun over her back and gave it a shake.

_The damn thing was too light!_

It wobbled and shook as Garret, undeterred, clumsily clambered upon it and carefully stood. Reaching out she could just touch the bottom railing.

_More gunshots..._

Brie jumped up and money-barred up and over, drew the M90 and hurried towards the noise.

_Down this floor then into the little corridor at the end, right, straight then left and then out into a nearly identical two__-__storied room._

Brie quickly took stock of the situation. The top level had four airlocks, all with red lights on them. The bottom floor had six and only one was green. There was a steel gully running its length with had an adjoining door at both ends.

_And t__he one that she could see was open just a fraction. _She thought eagerly. _That's where other survivor is!_

There was a risk though, if she got down she might not be able to get back up, and if there was trouble she would be trapped like a rat in a barrel.

_Now t__here was muffled sobbi__ng coming from behind the 'lock..._

She cocked her head quizzically. These days Brie was having trouble listening to her internal warning bells, they had been ringing nonstop since the jungle...but something was up with this guy.

'Hey!' She called out over railings. The sobbing stopped and an emotional, hysterical voice suddenly screamed, 'Stay away, you're one of them!'

Brie stood there for a minute.

_He is just bugging __out, _shethought._ It happens_ _he just needed to be talked down_..._and besides, I can't just leave him._

Self preservation lost out.The Privet climbed over the railing, made sure she wouldn't get caught up in her gun's straps then let go. Straightening up and drawing the shotgun she cautiously advanced on the door. It was roughly triangular and had a very small steel terrace in front of it, just like the one opposite. As she approached she could hear rapid scuffling behind the 'lock. Standing before it she gave the green lit door across from her a furtive look and lowered her gun.

'Hey.' She said again, but more gently. 'My name is Garret; Privet Brie Garret. What's your name?'

Through laborious breathing she heard him whisper, 'Stay away, _stay away_.'

'Hey, don't worry.' She began to say when she edged over to the gap to peer in. 'Everything...'

His gun sounded like an explosion in such a small space. By the time her ears stopped ringing he was still in hysteria.

'Stay the fuck away from me! Stay away, stay away, stay away! Go away! They'll come! _**They're coming!**_'

_Shocked and with each sense vibrating Brie's head snapped around and she pointed the gun at every shadow.__He was equipped with a Motion tracker, maybe he could see them?_

'_**They're coming**_!' He shrieked. '_**I won't let them take me!**_' and he started his crazed litany again.

Over his screaming Brie heard the green door hiss open and the man's mad cries where cut off by a single gunshot.

He's shot himself!

_He __had __shot himself!_

Numb Brie aimed the rifle at the doorway, but there was nothing down there but empty corridor!

Turning back and forth between the two she finally managed to tear herself away and look through the gap. Swallowing bile she could just make out his body, the wall behind him dark with splattered blood and brain.

She twisted away threw up on the deck. When she looked up she caught sight of a purple thing with pale striping over its back floating in the doorway.

Nauseous, sick and near lucid thoughts ran through her head. He killed himself. Whatever he'd seen and been through made him kill himself. He'd also end up putting a bullet in his head over nothing.

Everyone knew that the Covenant Engineers were harmless.

* * *

Harmless but annoying, she called it Bobby, though the earlier events still haunted her, playing over and over in her head, it was a welcome, vaguely friendly and useful distraction. Speaking of which...

'Hey, where'd you go?' She said, noting Bobby's disappearance. It was able to detect the Flood in advance and that alone, plus it followed her anyway, made it worth the trouble.

'Bobby?' She said again, peering about and changing to the machine gun.

_There it was_, it floated out of an adjoining corridor.

'There you are.' She said though she didn't expect an answer. It only looked at Brie with its many beady black eyes then went back in.

_These things were engineers. Though none had been captured, all documented sightings had these things doing the most amazing things with machinery. They could assimilate any technology from any race. Maybe this one had hacked a computer __down here __and found a way out!_

Encouraged by the possibility Brie hurried after it. She followed its purple shape through a maze of hallways till it led her out into _whatever! There was a fucking lift in the middle! And it was going up!_

And so was Bobby...it was floating up towards the ceiling.

_That was__ bad; it was his sign for Flood._

Brie ran towards the lift and brought out the M90.

It was then two things happened. Five ex-Marines popped out of the shadows and across the room a tall, blue Elite staggered out of the airlock followed by its own gaggle of ex-Human combat forms.

Her heart jumped at the sight of them but she had to deal with what was in front of her.

Brie blasted the first four but was winged by the fifth. Thrown to the floor by the force she lost the rifle but managed to draw the machine gun as the last one jumped onto her. They wrestled till she blew a hole clean through it. She shoved it away and pushed up, her left shoulder on fire.

_Now w__here was__ that squid faced bastard_

There he was, going all out against the three Flood. She watched him get throw against the wall. The poor bastard was going to lose...

Standing on the glass floor she picked up the shotgun. The blue Elite was certainly a survivor...but he was the enemy all the same.

But could she condemn him to death, or life as one of those things? He deserved a choice, her choice. Brie fired at the forms, peppering them with bullets from the assault rifle. A pair of them broke off and ran then leapt at her while the other continued to fight with the Elite. Switching to the M90 she swiftly dealt with them, blowing one's head off then putting two rounds into the other.

The Elite had defeated its own foe; it was now taking cover from her.

'Wait!' Brie called to it. She could see Elite register her word but it did not respond.

_Was there a way to make a truce when you and your enemy were being attacked by a new enemy? Brie didn't remember any classes covering it during basic training. Time to be innovative.._

Plus the arrival of more Flood helped. Infectious, carrier and combat forms were coming in from the 'lock the Elite had come through.

'Come on!' Brie yelled to it over their unholy cries and reloaded the Assault Rifle.

The Sangheili emerged and for a second Brie thought it might berserk like they normally did and dive into the fight. Instead it gave one look behind it and then started to run towards her.

Unable to deal with them all at once, Garret hefted a grenade and threw it over the Minor Elite's head and into the emerging pack. Four seconds later the explosive went off, unfortunately detonating several stickies as well.

Bodies, alive and dead, were thrown through the air and Brie caught a glance of blue as the Elite dove out of the way as she herself did the same. Half a green, dead Sangheililanded nearby and exploded in a flash of electric blue, Brie rolled as far away as she could but was hit by the shock wave and flying body parts.

Then the floor moved down an inch then began to ascend.

_What?!_ Amazed, choking on fear and surprise she turned to see a dismembered arm dangling over the control panel. _It's started the __lif__t,_she thought in despair and looked over the rising platform to the mess of Flood, filling the room. _That wasn't supposed to happen!_

And out of roiling battle came the blue Elite, it shoved aside the things as it took a running start towards the climbing lift then when it got close enough it made a giant leap up.

_It's going to__ miss_ she thought for a second till she heard its hands slap against the metal girders bracing the glass dais and its hooves click against the crystal as it swung forward, the Flood chasing him jumped up too but missed and fell down into the shaft to their deaths.

Brie turned around as something rushed at her.

'Damn it, Bobby!'

_Wait, he was floating up the shaft..._

She looked down to see the Elite hanging on and much further below the creatures milling around when something bounced off her sore shoulder _and tried to wrap its legs around her neck_.

_An Infectious form!_

In an instant Brie panicked. She threw herself to the floor and tore at its bloated body till it popped. Her frightened gaze saw more bumbling down the tube. She collected herself long enough to scramble up and draw the Assault Rifle. The Privet got a dozen rounds off and was knocked down as a Combat form appeared from an air-shaft and hit her.

The MA5B slid across the floor and over the edge, followed – much to her amazement – by the creature itself, it smacked against the wall and disappeared down the wide gap. Brie rolled over to see the Elite standing over her in the Flood's place.

Its quad jaws were open wide in exertion and it sucked in heavy breaths. Their eyes met for the briefest of seconds then the little forms were upon them.

The tall alien caught one and crushed it then stomped on another. Brie tore her eyes away and drew the M90 and fired when any got close enough.

Between the two of them they made short work of things, but when it was over she wished it wasn't.

The air vibrated with uncertainly. Her arm hurt but she didn't pause to check it, instead she began to reload the shotgun. When the last shell clipped in she aimed it away in a very pointed manner.

It watched her the whole time then in an almost calculated move, crossed to the holo-panel in one giant stride and grabbed the severed arm resting over the pedestal, brushed it away then stopped the lift.

Then it turned slowly to regard her.

_It had to be well over eight feet tall_...

'I want a truce. Can we work together?' Brie asked slowly and clearly.

It cocked it streamline head and raised a large hand to point at its pebbled throat than spoke gibberish in a very deep voice.

_That didn't go as planed_...She thought. _But all Elites had translators, shields and weapons. Rather obviously he had none of those. So where did that leave her?_

As if answering her question Bobby floated back down and over to the alien, the Elite seemed very surprised to see the Huragok but allowed it access the armoured apparatus attached to its blue suit.


	8. Truce 101

Chapter 8

Truce 101

The human is asleep. Bit by bit she lost her battle, finally nodding off. She is female with a lithe frame, dark hair and blue eyes and dressed in a dirty light blue jumpsuit. And though armed she lacked any combat gear.

Under all the grime, slime and muck Effraee could make out a name tag that read B. Garret and shoulder patches that had wings.

He had already relieved her of the inferior gun and was now sitting there with it in his lap while he waited for the engineer to finish. Again his curious gaze fell on the sleeping B. Garret.

_She seemed __very __small and fragile__. How did she make it this far..?_

Strangely enough being rescued by her did not bruise his ego. She was human and they, on the whole, had proved themselves to be tenacious warriors and brilliant tacticians.

_It wasn't that, _Effraee realized with a twinge and knew he was more shaken up then he thought. He was at the point where he'd befriend even the most the lowliest Grunt...

He would wait till the engineer was done then wake this B. Garret and speak to her but was sure that the female would want some kind of truce. If she was down here alone and probably lost like he was it was a fair assumption. The Huragok almost telepathic, it bumped into the side of his head as it attempted to shove both of its feelers down the back of his suit. After a second of fiddling his HUD reappeared and his onboard computer started a self diagnostic.

_It was amazing ho__w they could work without tools,_ he marvelled.

* * *

It was 06:51:45. The human had slept for two hours now and was beginning to stir.

Despite the lapse in time the Elite was not terrible bothered, the lift was quite safe from the things, the little purple alien had finished its job on his shields a little while ago _and_ he had also appreciated the break.

_It was hard to believe that he had almost been beaten to an inch of his life only a little while ago. __Ra' Effraee found difficult to remember making it to room with the lift. But he recalled the human with alacrity. She had called to him..._

Sitting opposite he watched her eyes twitch beneath their lids and her forelimbs begin to quiver then B. Garret woke with a start and a yelp, her wild and pained gaze fall on her gun first before meeting his gaze.

She pushed herself stiffly up and held her left shoulder. He could see dried blood had seeped through the rip in her sleeve.

The Sangheili also noted that the female was not terrible scared of him at all, if anything she was morose.

She licked her lips then said, 'What are you waiting for?'

'Your explanation.' He replied. Though her voice was light it had a hard edge to it that lacked the appropriate respect. 'I'd like to think your life depends upon it.'

Brie Garret paused as though checking something then cleared her throat and said glibly. 'I suppose you have waited long enough to hear it. I saved you because you are another survivor like me. I want a truce. When we make it topside we split.'

Ra' Effraee's quad jaw twitched with the confirmation. He was right. But he what if was _too_ eager to hear the correct answer? Overall _he_ had the advantage and without her weapon she had lost a very powerful bargaining chip. She might agree to her suggested terms of truce for fear of him, only to kill or abandon him later.

He stood up and towered over her diminutive presents. He would frighten the human as a way to test her response.

'And what if I say no?' He said, his voice rumbled threateningly.

She stood stiffly too and though the female _just_ made it to chest height she met his gaze full on.

'Then _I_ die now and _you_ die later. '

'_Never before had any Human offered a truce!_'

'Then take it or leave it.' She said. 'I want to live through this long enough to be killed later. What do you say?'

Effraee regarded her carefully. He had liked her answers and she appeared honest with her intentions, if a little belligerent.

'Then a truce, for now.' The Elite concluded. 'What happens when we reach the surface will not be up to me. The Covenant rarely takes prisoners.'

She gave him a slightly sarcastic smile. 'I think you are being presumptuous.'

_The Human actually thought her fo__rces would still be in the area,_ mused the Elite.

She hopefully looked at her rifle. 'May I have my weapon back?' She asked.

'No.' He replied. 'Would I be wrong in assuming my knowledge of arms and superiority on the battle field far exceeds your own?'

The human slowly nodded, making her limp brown ponytail bob. 'But do not write me off. I've made it this far.'

He agreed, but only to a certain point. 'Noted, but _I_ will keep this for now.' Then he held out his hand. 'I'll have the rest of the ammunition for it, too.'

She quietly nodded again but took out a big handful of shells from her pocket and dropped them in his proffered hand.

'Do you want to have a sleep or something?' She asked as he stowed the ammo in his suit's thigh compartment.

'No.' He answered. 'I rested when you did.'

And that was that. They looked away from one another. The truce with the human was somewhat simple, but effective. The Sangheili knew that things could have easily been worse. He could've found a male instead her, or a group of Marines, or she could have had a different disposition.

The Elite activated the lift and it began to ascend. The Prophets had certainly answered his prayer in an odd way. He turned his head to see that he was being watched by the female.

'What's your name?' B. Garret asked as the lift reached to top. Instead of answering her he was all business. He mugged at her for quiet and stepped off into the mute light. The room was empty and identical to the one below it except one of the doors was blocked. After a quick sweep he indicated to the earthling that it was safe to proceed.

Instead of saying something like he thought she might the human warily nodded her thanks and followed with Huragok in tow.

'My name is Ra' Effraee.' He said quietly as they fell into step and headed towards the obvious exit. 'I am a Minor Domo. You many call me by my title.'

'Privet Brie Garret, call me by any one of them.' She kept her voice hushed and pointed to the engineer who was floating a little behind them. 'And that's Bobby, it seems to follow on its own.'

_She called __the engineer from the Vid__ Bobby?_ He thought but did not elaborate on its presents. They _were_ still on opposite sides. But being curious about its previous whereabouts would not seem out of the ordinary.

'Where did you find it?' Effraee asked as he led the way.

'Down there, somewhere. It's like a labyrinth.'

'Hush!' The Elite hissed as the 'tracker lit up. 'Take cover!' And eager to prove his mettle he charged forward to the T-intersection at the end of the hall and went left were creatures coming from a corridor. Bullets pinged off his shields and plasma blackened the shiny walls. In the tight quarters he let off couple of rounds then drew back around the corner and blasted the rest as they were stupid enough to come closer. The shotgun was _very_ effective.

Area clear he reloaded then went round the bend to the bounty of weapons clutched in fingers or dropped on the ground. The Elite picked up a green Plasma Pistol, shaking the hand off, as well as a pair of Plasma Rifles and some blue sticky grenades.

Pleased, he returned to the human and Bobby, who were where he left them.

'For you.' He said and handed over the Pistol and a Rifle. 'Do not forget our agreement.'

* * *

It was many hours later.

Ra' Effraee gave a throaty laugh. 'You fight like a Grunt!' He jibed with amusement as the Human come out from her cover to confront him.

'One, my arm hurts and two, I just saved your ass so be grateful!'

The Sangheili huffed at her. 'I would have killed it.'

He was deeply pleased at the way things had turned. Allowing the truce with Brie Garret had been the right thing to do. Despite his banter she was quite adept at fighting the Flood, as she called them, and complemented his fight skill surprisingly well. But if she had a fault it was that she was too slow to keep up with him. He often found himself constantly looking over his shoulder to make sure he hadn't lost her.

'Do you see any rounds for this?' She asked and held up the MA5B as they combed through the weaponry on the floor.

'No.' He said, but he handed her a frag grenade instead. The Sangheili felt nether fear or guilt over helping or fighting side by side with the little human.

At first he thought that it was because if she did pose a problem, a weak human female would be easy to control. But more and more that felt untrue. The Flood had given them common ground, a reason to begin to trust and rely on each other.

'Where is Bobby?' He asked and Brie gestured up with one hand and pocketed the frag with the other. 'By the ceiling, don't worry, he'll come down.' She said.

Though Garret had told him that it had led her to the lift it was now tagging after them in whatever aimless direction they took.

_But no matter_, he thought. _It was worth keeping around, it could fix anything and surely the Prophets would wish to have it __re__-examined._

'Shall we go?' The Human suggested. Effraee agreed. They'd taken what they could so he took point, as usual, and led the way.

It was still corridors and cavernous rooms but they had no other doors branching off, it made the Elite feel like they were actually moving in the right direction.

There was lots of walking involved, punctuated by Flood attacks and sightings of the great flying drones Garret had dubbed Sentinels.

Being on different sides kept the small talk small. For the sake of any argument turning potentially deadly they both avoided speaking of the war. They mainly talked about the Flood.

Tactics were discussed along with previous encounters as well as what arms were most effective. He'd also asked her if she'd encounter the big proto flood thing he'd seen on the Vid, or Guilty Spark. After a description on both she was sure she'd only seen the Monitor many hours ago, insisting that it, like the Sentinels, used the air-ducts to get around.

The three of then moved through what was virtually a giant hallway, connect by to each other by airlocks the height and breadth of the walls while strange shaped lights illuminated their way.

She gestured to a passing alcove. 'What's that?' She said and stopped.

From that point on they began to find bodies from both sides. They agreed that if they found survivors they would try to keep to the original pact but if unable to prevent their compatriots from shooting the other side they would separate, with the Sangheili taking the Huragok.

Effraee knew he could control any Grunts found but an Elite? They would shoot her on sight, truce or no truce. All he could do was to try and protect within the bounds of their agreement.

They stopped at two dead Marines because one of them wore a flak jacket and the other lay upon a med kit.

'Thank god.' She said and seemed relieved to see the large white box.

_Perhaps her wound was worse than he though?_ Effraee wondered then asked her as they both checked the area before stopping.

'No, it stings like a bitch but it might get infected.' The Privet said. She gently coaxed the man's body away and grabbed the med kit then popped the seal. 'It would be ironic to get out of here only to die for blood poisoning.'

Effraee snorted and examined the bodies. 'Ironic would be getting shot by your own team as you emerged from the last Flood infested tunnel.'

Brie stood up and shook her head. 'I would be _so_ pissed, but not entirely surprised.' She said with a grin.

Effraee found himself returning it, Sangheili style.

'What are you doing?' She asked while unzipping her jumpsuit then carefully pulling her limbs out of the long sleeves. She rolled up her left shirt sleeve to reveal a deep gash.

'I am getting the armour for you. You cannot keep hiding behind me during fire fights.' He said lightly, rolling the smaller man onto his back and began to strip his armour away.

Brie gave a soft laugh. 'But you make a fine shield.' She said then regarded him thoughtfully as he put the weighty thing down next to her. 'Thank you...'

'Do you want his jacket too?'

The human now looked faintly disgusted.

'No. I feel bad enough excepting that, or scavenging for weapons.' She said and continued packing and strapping her wound.

The Sangheili understood but no longer shared the squeamishness. He had been a part of the Covenant war machine since his teens and in that time he had seen some truly terrible things.

'Sometimes battle is not about the honourable deeds.' He said. 'And besides, even in death our comrades give us life.'

The human looked at the armour like it had personally displeased her and dressed.

'Let's just hope things don't get so bad we have to wear dead men's clothes.' She conceded roughly then recovered with an offhand shrug. She leant over to rifle through the med kit and held up a roll of bandages.

'You got banged up too.' Brie said, indicating to the numerous dings in his armour where it had been breached and blood had dripped through. 'I am no medic but I should be able to help you.'

Never before had a human offer aid, they only ever cared for their own. Touched, he was about to reply when he heard a deep Sangheilivoice roar, 'They _lied_ to us, brother! And _you_ like the ignorant fool you _are_ believed every word of it!'

It was followed by the sound of someone choking to death on their own blood.

'Stay here!' He snapped at Brie and took off but wasn't sure why. He had a very bad feeling about this partly because Effraee thought he recognized the voice from the Vid. It meant confronting a highly trained Zealot who just sounded like he stabbed someone.

Equipping the M90 he loped up ahead to where the huge corridor turned out of sight. Slowing to a stealthy walk he rounded the bevelled corner and ducked behind a dozen purple containers. According to his motion tracker there were two yellow spots that were eleven meters away so he quietly he waddled to the last container and put his head up to see a pair of gold Zealots face to face.

The one closest was limp and had plasma sword protruding from his back while the other held him up.

'You have listened to the Prophets! And look where it has gotten you!' Effraee caught the Elite's tag before it flickered and died. Second Commander Zealot Kea' Gerentee had the sword pulled from out of his chest and he was throw to the deck in a heap.

The other, tagged Zealot Sesa 'Refumee flicked the glowing sword with a snap of his thick wrist and sent his comrade's blood flying onto the sterile wall.

'That was a long time coming.' He said in a naturally guttural voice to the body. Then he looked up. 'The Second Commander was _quite_ a fool.'

Effraee, hiding behind crates had realized he'd made a mistake. If he could see the Zealot on his tracker then surely he showed on the others'. _At least Brie Garret was far enough away_...

'Come out. Hiding like a Grunt is only alright if you _are_ one.'

The blue Sangheili stood up and moved into view, but no closer than necessary.

His world was black and white – destroy the bad, protect the good – dissolved into shades of grey. He'd seen a subordinate murder his superior, but unfortunately for 'Effraee, the Zealot out ranked him, meaning he was the officer in charge. He had to take care with what he said or did

'Minor domo Ra 'Effraee...' The golden Elite said and sized him up then his beady eyes fell upon the human weapon. 'Well, I must confess this _is_ a surprise. I had no idea there was anyone left.'

Dread spiked as 'Refumee came closer with his sword held loosely with confidence.

_The other had already decided to kill him; he was just talking so he could get closer.__'Effraee__ had to get__ back to__Brie;__he couldn't risk fighting and losing on his own._

'That's what I thought too, sir.' Effraee said for something to say and began to strafe back towards where he'd come. As he expected 'Refumee followed, his dinner-plate sized hooves clopped on the steel deck and the plasma sword hummed through the cold air with idle flourishes.

He was too close, within lunging distance but the minor domo kept steadily moving.

'It is nothing personal...' 'Refumee began then stopped in his tracks. 'By our infernal Prophets!' He rumbled. 'It is the Huragok!'

And it was, 'Effraee twisted his muscled around to see Bobby float in and he was tackled to the ground by the other male.

_Of all the dirty tricks!_

He yelled out as his shields crackled and disappeared with a single slash of the sword. Struggling wildly for the upper hand he fired the rifle twice before the cumbersome weapon was wrenched out of his hand which broke fingers then the plasma sword was shoved in his face. Blinded by the blade's light his left hand snaked up and by sheer luck found 'Refumee's forearm. He pushed up as hard as he could.

The Zealot gave a strained laugh and got his other two-thumbed hand behind 'Effraee's helmeted head and began to force it up where the shimmering blade lay inches from his throat.

Out weighted, out classed young Sangheili gave a snarling cry as a green light passed over his eyes.

Above him 'Refumee gave a frustrated and unarticulated roar as a barrage of plasma hit him next and forced him up to his feet.

'What's your problem, _scumbag_?' Called Brie's voice and 'Effraee heard the familiar sound of a plasma pistol being charged. The golden Elite looked feral, his sword twitching in his hand.

'I will cut you into pieces, little human.' He snarled and lowered his carriage threateningly.

With the Zealot distracted 'Effraee wordlessly kicked up, snatched the M90 up of the floor, pumped the action with an audible _crack_ and aimed it, much to the other Elite's surprise, at him and not the earthling.

'Refumee stood up tall and extended his neck then assessed the pair with a bark of laughter. 'Well, well, well. You are a human lover!' He said to 'Effraee. 'Somehow I am not surprised!'

'Shut it.' Snapped tersely Brie and spoke to the blue Elite without diverting her attention. 'What are you going to do with him?'

The other Sangheili snickered again and put his free hand behind his back. 'I will make it easy for you!' He said and he threw a glowing blue plasma grenade at them.

The explosive landed at Ra 'Effraee's hooves, but he was already diving out of the way. He heard Garret firing upon the other and then the sticky detonated in an electric flash of blue and white.

Again the minor got up only to see Brie coming back.

'He's gone, damn it! What happened?' She said, worried and angry at the same time.

'I do not know. I saw him kill another Zealot then he tried to kill me so I would not tell.'

Brie said some swearwords that didn't translate. 'This place does things to people!' She said. 'It changes them!'

Then she calmed down a bit. 'Are you alright?'

With 'Refumee gone 'Effraee felt safe enough to stop and listen to his body.

'I think I have been run over by a Wraith.' He replied eventually.


End file.
